DNA sequencing is generally an expensive business and all sorts of methods have been developed to try to bring the cost down. Illumina, a company out of San Diego, California, now claims to be the first to offer machines capable of sequencing human DNA for under $1,000 a pop. For reference, five years ago that figure was about $60,000.

The HiSeq X Ten package from Illumina includes, as the name implies, ten or more HiSeq X sequencers and is aimed at large, high-throughput labs that can benefit from economies of scale. Each of sequencers can process as many as 600 gigabases (Gb) per day of sequencing data, allowing for tens of thou...